Our mission is to promote student success through evidence-based science education. The University of Oregon Science Literacy Program (SLP) makes a real-world difference in the lives of UO students by building science literacy among undergraduate students, giving science students mentored teaching opportunities […]

Winter term we will read Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning. Lang, J. M. (2016). Small teaching: Everyday lessons from the science of learning. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. You can purchase a copy of the book or an electronic copy is available free […]

The Science Literacy Program has grown tremendously since it was founded in 2010. Last year, nearly 20% of undergraduate students participated in an SLP-affiliated course. The SLP works with faculty instructors, graduate fellows, and undergraduate scholars to improve pedagogy and science communication […]

The Graduate School and Research and Innovation office are hosting the Big Data meeting on August 8th at the Ford Alumni Center. This is a great opportunity to hear about the challenges and opportunities for Industry and Academic scientists using big data. The last session might be of interest for many with its focus on next-generation sequencing technology. For more information and registration (deadline is Friday, August 1) see the meeting website bigdata.uoregon.edu.

The Journal of Research in Science Teaching has published a second annual special issue on Discipline-Centered Postsecondary Science Education, also referred to as Discipline-Based Education Research (DBER). There’s several interesting articles on higher education research in specific disciplines and associated best teaching practices.

During Week 9 of the spring term we read about using games to help build science literacy and teach content. The next week, Week 10, we tried out a few including Go Extinct and science Pictionary.

This week’s Around the O, features an article about Ian McNeely, associate dean for undergraduate education in the College of Arts and Sciences and a professor of history, and his work with the role-playing teaching game “Reacting to the Past” that immerses students in their subject matter. McNeely acted as game master recently described in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Participants in the game are assigned roles and use source material to navigate their way through events and encounters using readings and discussions to further the scenario.

A regional faculty RTTP conference will be hosted at UO November 7 – 9. Information will be posted here as it becomes available.

Interested in learning more about using games to teach science? Check out the Comics, Games, and Music section of our bibliography.

Members of the ABL Connect Initiative at Harvard are working on an online resource for active learning resources for undergraduate education and are collecting an active learning survey across multiple institutions. Please follow the link to participate in the survey. Active Learning Survey with Harvard University

Call for faculty who are currently using or have used the the Genetics Concept Assessment (GCA) with their genetics students that would like to participate in GCA related projects.

Jenny Knight at the University of Colorado-Boulder is beginning a project that would involve administering the GCA and a few additional assessment questions (bigger time investment), as well as a project that would survey faculty (small time investment). If you would like to participate, please email Jenny Knight at Jennifer.Knight@colorado.edu.